Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware recently gave a $239,220 Blue­Prints for the Com­mu­nity Fund grant to Wes­ley Col­lege. The grant will be used for the College’s new health sci­ences build­ing to be housed at the J. Allen Frear Fed­eral Build­ing in down­town Dover. Wes­ley Col­lege has been awarded this build­ing by the Gen­eral Ser­vices Admin­is­tra­tion fol­low­ing the deci­sion to decom­mis­sion it.

The grant money will sup­port three dif­fer­ent cat­e­gories includ­ing tech­nol­ogy infra­struc­ture, a “Sim Man 3G,” and secu­rity for the exte­rior of the build­ing to ensure a safe learn­ing envi­ron­ment. The tech­nol­ogy infra­struc­ture includes wire­less Inter­net, smart boards and other teach­ing aids in the class­rooms, labs and nurs­ing fac­ulty offices. The grant money also will be used to pur­chase and main­tain a “Sim Man 3G” for the nurs­ing lab, an essen­tial state-of-the-art assess­ment tool used in lab sim­u­la­tions. The anatom­i­cally cor­rect “manikin” includes proven soft­ware that allows learn­ers to prac­tice emer­gency treat­ment of patients.

“We are so thrilled to have this sup­port from Blue Cross Blue Shield,” said Wes­ley Col­lege Pres­i­dent Dr. William N. John­ston. “The out­pour­ing of com­mu­nity sup­port we have received is directly respon­si­ble for help­ing us bring this vision to fruition. The growth of the nurs­ing pro­gram will help increase our capac­ity to teach new health care pro­fes­sion­als, sig­nif­i­cantly increas­ing the num­ber of bac­calau­re­ate and master’s degrees in the field of nurs­ing from Wesley.”